Content Warning: This section discusses war, graphic depictions of violence and death, and racial discrimination and racist language.

The novel begins in 1967 with protagonist Richie Perry, a young African American man from Harlem, waiting for his plane to refuel in Anchorage, Alaska. Perry is a young army soldier who is being sent to Vietnam after a mix-up with his medical paperwork that caused him to be transferred to a different unit; he’d been told by his old captain that he would likely never see conflict while in Vietnam because of a knee injury. In Anchorage, Perry meets Harold “Peewee” Gates, a suspicious and cocky African American soldier from Chicago, and Judy Duncan, an army nurse. After the plane refuels, the unit stops in Osaka to change planes. Due to an unforeseen bureaucratic error, the unit is forced to sleep in the airport overnight and pay for their own meals; Perry claims that this is “typical” of the army (6). In the morning, Perry buys souvenirs for his mother and younger brother Kenny. His mother has an addiction to alcohol, and his father left them. He speaks with Judy about their childhood dreams; Perry wanted to be a pharmacist.